Packaging operations in industry are of significant import with interest towards promoting the rapid, efficient and economical packaging of products for the market. In commercial applications, such as the packaging of groceries or household articles or trash, it is highly desirable to have means whereby a bag can be easily dispensed from a carton and held in an open position for receiving various types of contents. Although many bag dispensers are available from which bags can be dispensed one at a time, the bags, either made of paper base material or flexible plastic film material, are usually strong enough to contain various size and weight articles, but are not strong enough or have sufficient integrity to retain an upright open position during the packaging operation without some additional support or retaining means.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 810,329, 939,508, 1,653,393, 1,760,752, 1,895,904, 2,903,215 and 3,653,619 all disclose various support or retaining means for maintaining a bag in an open position to receive various articles. These references generally either disclose embodiments whereby a bag is first dispensed from a supply carton or station and then unfolded, opened and then tucked or taped into a clip type means or fed onto wickets through holes in the upper portion of the bags. Another embodiment (U.S. Pat. No. 810,329) discloses a bag holder having means for maintaining a bag in an open position while also having means for accommodating reverse bags. This reference, however, employs pressure type clip means for maintaining a bag in an open position and thus would require an operator to manipulate the top edge portion of a bag through several clip means before the bag is in an operative position to receive articles.
In addition to the awkwardness of positioning an opened bag on known retaining or supporting means, the removal of the bag after its desired contents are fed therein has proven to be just as cumbersome and time consuming.
An approach to eliminate the use of retaining or supporting means to maintain a bag in an open position is to increase the rigidity of the bag by using a material which has sufficient integrity to enable the bag to retain an upright open position without support means. This approach, however, would require a great increase in material cost thus making it an impractical commercial alternative.
Filed concurrently herewith by applicant and incorporated herein by reference in U.S. application Ser. No. 782,390 titled A BAG DISPENSER AND HOLDER disclosing a bag dispenser and support holder comprising a brace member having a pair of deformable, resilient, outwardly distending, spaced-apart support members, said support members comprising substantially straight inner segments for supporting a plurality of bags proximal the brace member through a pair of spaced-apart holes in the bags, and substantially curved, inwardly opposed outer segments which are aligned in a common plane to define a substantial hoop configuration; said brace member having at least one outwardly distending hook-wicket intermediate said distending pair of support members adapted for further supporting the plurality of bags through holes in said bags intermediate the pair of spaced-apart holes; and said outer segments of the support members and said at least one hook-wicket being adapted for supporting and maintaining a bag in an open position. As stated in the application, it is preferable to use at least two hook-wickets distending from the brace member so as to facilitate and insure the mouth of the bag being fully opened for optimum utilization.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a bag dispenser and support holder that will permit bags to be dispensed one at a time and sequentially held in an open position for receiving various size articles.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a bag dispenser and holder that is designed to facilitate the opening of a bag as it is fed from a supply station, then maintain the bag in an open position, and once the bag has received its desired contents, it is also designed to facilitate the closing of the bag.
Another object of this invention is to provide a bag dispenser and holder that is adapted to accommodate a plurality of reserve bags; adapted to facilitate the opening of a bag as it is fed from the reserve; adapted to maintain the opened bag in an upright position; and adapted to facilitate the closing of the bag once it is filled with a desired size and quantity of articles.
Another object of this invention is to provide a bag dispenser and holder that is easy to fabricate and easy to use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a bag dispenser and holder that is designed to maintain a bag in an open position and adapted such that the bag can be closed after partial filling and then reopened to complete the filling of the bag thereby maintaining sanitary conditions during an interrupted filling operation.
The foregoing and additional objects will become more fully apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawing.